Kennedy Center Works to Make the Case That Repairs Are Urgent

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Kennedy Center Works to Make the Case That Repairs Are Urgent

In Washington and in federal court, the center is arguing that its planned two-year closure is crucial. Critics say it’s a result of declining attendance and fleeing artists.

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Among the changes the Trump administration has brought to the Kennedy Center is the addition of the president’s name to the exterior. Now it is slated to close for reasons that are the subject of debate.

Credit...

Eric Lee for The New York Times

By

Julia Jacobs

and

Zach Montague

Reporting from Washington

April 28, 2026,

3:28 p.m. ET

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In recent weeks, members of Congress, arts donors and journalists have been whisked through a red-carpeted grand hall in the Kennedy Center and down into its less dignified underbelly to tour the institution’s most serious maintenance needs.

They’ve seen rusted steel and degraded concrete in the building’s loading docks, defunct machinery in its cobweb-ridden river pump room and deteriorating fireproofing in its parking garage.

The tour guide has been the center’s new leader, Matt Floca, the former vice president of operations, who is seeking to convince Washington that the performing arts institution is in bad enough shape to warrant the two-year closure

announced by President Trump.

“From compromised structural systems to end-of-life equipment, the needs are real and urgent,” Mr. Floca said last week

in a news release,

which featured a photo of an electrical vault riddled with rust.

In the second year of President Trump’s takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, convincing the world of the center’s severe disrepair has become a top priority as officials try to rebut claims that the institution was driven to closure by depressed ticket sales and fleeing artists. No one disputes that the center could use some fixing up, but whether or not it is necessary — or wise — to shutter the center for those repairs has become the subject of public debate and litigation in federal court.

Image

Matt Floca, who now leads the Kennedy Center, took reporters on a tour last week in which he pointed out areas that need repair.

Credit...

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

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